Header$type=social_icons

Archive Pages Design$type=blogging

FanZoneBlog: Explaining The Rooney's Regression And What Can Be Done

The fan zone blog is an avenue for all readers to have their write ups about their clubs posted ...

The fan zone blog is an avenue for all readers to have their write ups about their clubs posted on the blog! If you want to participate, just comment below or send a mail to Wolexisblog@gmail.com

I’ve been spending
far too much time trying to understand what’s happened to Rooney. Probably
longer than Rooney or his manager has, in truth. But I’ve come to some
conclusions.

The obvious first
facet to the answer is that having been played in so many unnatural positions
for so many years that he’s actually lost the simple instinct he was born with,
that made him such a fearsome player. He’s a good honest pro, and when asked to
do a job has always done it to the fullest of his ability or brain, which means
forgetting or overriding what he would normally choose to do.

Managers and
commentators have said much the same, such as not wanting to take what makes
Rooney so special from him, including that desire to go Steven Gerrard and be everywhere doing everything.

He’s been moulded into a player
who should stay in position. But what position is that? Is he supposed to be
out-wide this game, or deeper, or right at the pointy end? It’s bound to mess
with his game, when he can’t just do it on instinct. The best players are at their
best when they’re just channelling the football gods. Right now his sense of
self is a bit lost.

The second clear
facet is that he is much older. What we’re wanting to see is that young kid
belting around, taking on shots that he’s no right to take on and seeing them
fly into the top corner. That always departs with age and especially with
injury. He has so much experience he’s naturally going to be picking options
rather than just doing.

Third, he’s now
captaining the side and indeed the entire club. That sense of responsibility
means he’s going to be more aware of making the wrong decisions. By contrast,
of those players with whom he’s compared (Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Hazard) none
of them are regular captains. Those strings naturally inhibit him as a player.

My final thought is
this. Since Rooney has lost that killer instinct and pace that he had as a
younger, and is now established as the captain while still having a great deal
of creativity and skill (far more than he is popularly credited with on these
pages), I think he should probably be moving to that Pirlo role… pulling
strings, sitting deep, captaining the side and contributing where he doesn’t
inhibit the team. Anyway, just a thought…